Saab yesterday declared it was no longer able to pay its workforce and recent deals with two Chinese firms - Pang Da and Zhejiang Youngman - have failed to free up cash flow at Saab to allow it to return to normal day-to-day operations and pay off substantial debts to suppliers.

Production at its Trollhattan plant has almost ground to halt since April 6 and there will definitely not be any new cars built at the plant until mid-July at the earliest.

Saab boss Victor Muller, who also runs Saab’s parent firm Swedish Automotive, is now looking to the US for new investment, attempts which were dismissed by Holmqvist as “pathetic”.